Iwi bounce back from defeat at the ballot box to demand council voting rights without being elected

You’ve got to give Peter Moeahu full marks for gall.

His undemocratic cause was lost when the good citizens of New Plymouth went to the polls to decide if it was a good idea for their district council to have a separatist ward reserved for indigenous persons.

An overwhelming majority of those who bothered getting off their chuffs to vote made plain it was a bad idea.

But this Peter Moeahu feller sees this as a chance to push an even more provocative idea.

He is calling for New Plymouth’s council to reconsider appointing iwi representatives to influential standing committees.

This means they would get to influence council decisions without having to go through the bother of getting elected, even in a separatist ward.

Howie Tamati has an explanation for ballot box result: some voters didn’t bother playing the game

Alf’s good mate Paula Bennett shouldn’t lose much sleep.

But she should be ready for the United Nations to give her a call on a matter within her ministerial bailiwick.

The reason: the Mayor of New Plymouth is spitting the dummy after voters in his bailiwick rejected a council vote for a Maori ward.

Andrew Judd, the mayor in question, is now talking of  going to the United Nations with a complaint against the Government about the legislation governing the process whereby our indigenous persons can seek special voting privileges.

Exactly what this has to do with the United Nations is anyone’s guess.

Want to see why Delahunty got a 2/10 mark from Trans Tasman? Just look at her Treaty thinking

And when we Pakeha become more politically enlightened, this treaty will entitle your people to a 50:50 share of all governance arrangements…

Alf hadn’t noticed a recent opinion piece by Gareth Morgan, the bloke with a dislike of moggies but – hurrah – a great urge to preserve our democracy.

Morgan was contributing to the debate over Maori representation on local councils.

More particularly, he was taking issue with New Plymouth’s (very temporary) Mayor, Andrew Judd, who had embroiled himself in a debate over whether his council should have a Maori ward and was calling for all councils to have Maori provide half of their councils.

Willie agrees Maori are entitled to a half-share of political power, but he’ll settle for less for now

Willie Jackson has popped up in New Plymouth to confirm Alf’s suspicions that some indigenous persons in this country feel the Treaty of Waitangi entitles them to a half share of anything that’s up for grabs, especially a slice of the political action.

He can count on bumping into some craven Pakeha person who is only too willing to give away the half share of the action that Jackson is claiming.

New Plymouth mayor Andrew Judd comes into this category. He reckons Maori should be given half the seats on his council – and on every other council in the land. Never minds what the citizens think.

Jackson obviously concurs that this is a fair go.

According to this report in the Daily News:

Mayor Judd favours doing things by halves – and he wants all of NZ to accept his power-sharing model

And then I have this idea of putting all council seats aside for the tangata whenua…

About two months ago, the Mayor of New Plymouth was getting kudos from the Maori Party – and no doubt from lots of other Maori leaders – for acknowledging that our indigenous persons are special and should be given special treatment.

His council had just voted for a Maori ward by seven votes to six.

But he was getting plenty of stick, too, from folks who had the temerity to be miffed at the Mayor’s tinkering with their democratic structure (and doing it on the strength of a very close vote)..

One councillor – a true democrat – had the balls to oppose the move and resigned in protest.

The mayor, Andrew Judd, showed troubling signs of being confused about what he was up to.

John McLeod is branded a renegade – just for resigning over the introduction of race-based voting

No, he didn’t burn down the council chambers.

It’s a measure of the magnitude of the Kiwi surrender to the power push by indigenous persons that New Plymouth councillor John McLeod is described as a renegade.

That derogatory adjective was used in a caption beneath his photo in the Taranaki Daily News before he resigned “after the vote on Maori wards did not go his way”.

Renegade?

According to the definition at Oxforddctionaries.com a renegade is…

A person who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles: an agent who later turns out to be a renegade

So has John McLeod deserted the New Plymouth Council or his city?

Or has he betrayed it or its principles?

It depends.